


Hanging by a Thread

by Telesilla



Series: All I Ever Wanted [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: BDSM, Community: kink_bingo, Kink, Kink Bingo 2009, M/M, temp piercing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-27
Updated: 2009-06-27
Packaged: 2017-10-04 05:06:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telesilla/pseuds/Telesilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While on vacation, John and Rodney do a complicated scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hanging by a Thread

The idea of going to a club with Rodney honestly hasn't occurred to John; Rodney just doesn't seem like the sex club type. Of course, when they met, Rodney hadn't seemed like the extremely kinky, sadist type either, so by now, John should be used to this kind of surprise.

As they walk through the discreet door, John looks around for a sign or anything identifying the place, but he comes up with nothing. In fact, looking around the lobby he finds himself in, he's beginning to wonder if Rodney's playing an elaborate practical joke. It looks like the waiting area at a high class restaurant, all recessed lighting and modern art on the walls.

"Sit down," Rodney says and John obeys, taking a seat on a comfortable leather sofa. He watches while Rodney chats with the attractive guy behind the desk and then Rodney returns with a clipboard.

"Look this over," he says. "If you feel you can't sign it, that's fine. We'll go back to the hotel."

John blinks at the words on the page--it's an NDA and a pretty serious one too. "What is all this?"

"This isn't the Power Exchange," Rodney says. "This place is serious and if we don't see anyone at least mildly famous in there, that's just because it's Wednesday night."

The NDA isn't something that gets in the way of John's other security obligations; it just asks that he not disclose the existence of the place or talk about anything he sees there with anyone who isn't a member. "You're a member, I take it?" he asks Rodney, who gives him the "well duh" look.

John rolls his eyes and signs.

"Great," Rodney says, clapping his hands in a way that has John fighting back a laugh. "C'mon then."

"How serious?" John asks, trying to keep his cool and not gape when they walk into a big, open, very trendy looking bar. It's the naked people that make John want to stare--and the people in leather or rubber or...and is that really the same guy he saw pitching the other night when he dragged Rodney to a ball game?

"What?" Rodney's looking around as if reorienting himself. "Do want anything from the bar? A coke or something? They'll have bottles of water down in the dungeon, of course."

"Nah, I'm good." John turns and looks at Rodney, who, in jeans and a button down white shirt should look out of place here and yet, somehow doesn't. Whereas John, in a pair of butter-soft and incredibly comfortable leather jeans and a slightly too snug black t-shirt, is sure he's sticking out like a sore thumb.

"You said people were serious here. I...am I supposed to be calling you...you know, sir or something?"

Rodney laughs. "Good God, no. See the beauty of this place is that you can do...pretty much whatever you want, really. Some of these people are hardcore lifestyle types and some just like to pop by for a beer and a spanking after a hard day down in the financial district."

The dungeon is even more impressive. John's been to sex clubs before, but, like the bar and the reception area, this place exudes class. Real class and not what Nancy had always called "klassy with a K."

"Jesus, this is nice."

"Yeah, isn't it? There're other rooms, of course, including a more...dungeony dungeon, but seeing as we've both done time in places like that, I was thinking not so much."

Pausing, Rodney turns and looks at him. "There are also private rooms if you'd rather not have an audience."

He obviously means it, so John turns the idea over in his head. "I've done things in public places before. I'm...um...it's harder to get a response from me in public." It helps, he thinks, that there aren't a whole lot of people here.

"Trust me," Rodney says, setting down the duffel bag he brought with him, "I'll get a response."

John thinks of the caning Rodney gave him and wants to reach back and rub his ass at the mere memory. "Yeah, you probably will."

"You love it," Rodney replied. "Take off your shirt."

John does and Rodney looks him and then grins. "You shouldn't be as hot as you are."

"Gee thanks, McKay, you say the nicest things."

"I really do. Go grab two of those chairs, the straight backed ones...."

Once John's sitting down, Rodney crouches down next to him. "Okay," he says and he's dead serious now. "I want to do some play piercing; I know you don't have needle issues but are you okay with this?"

"Wow, I...." John pauses, remembering some of the pictures he's seen. Rodney's talked about piercing before but it's always been him bitching about John not being able to have his nipples pierced. "Yeah, he says. "Yeah, I'd like to feel that."

It feels...weird. It hurts some, but it's totally different than anything John's ever had done to him. It's a...quiet hurt, is the phrase that comes to him. And God, but this is Rodney's kind of thing; he's careful and methodical and precise as he slides each needle under John's skin, through the first layer of flesh and out again. Rodney's using hypodermic needles, placing them closely together up the outside of John's bicep, and it's strange, almost meditative. Even the occasional touch of the gauze Rodney's using to wipe the blood up doesn't distract John from the needles.

"What?" Rodney looks up when John laughs a little. "It's a little early for the endorphins."

"Nah, just thinking how this is meditative and that got me to thinking of Teyla."

Rodney grins. "Yeah well, next time she wants us to meditate, tell her you can only do it if there are needles involved." He touches one of the piercings and John catches his breath. "You okay?"

"It's...tiny pain," John tries to explain. "It hurts, but really not as much as I'd have thought."

"Ah to have your pain threshold," Rodney takes up another needle. "Of course then I might be the masochist and we'd be screwed...."

By time there's a ladder of needles from John's elbow to his shoulder, the endorphins have kicked in and each new needle feels fucking awesome. John's aware that he's smiling more than usual and when he actually takes a moment to look around, he sees a few people settled on a near by sofa watching. He grins at them--isn't this cool?--and a woman in latex smiles back.

"How're you doing?"

"I kinda feel like I'm stoned."

"That's because you are, dumbass."

John laughs at that; only Rodney would call someone dumbass in the middle of an S/M scene.

"You're gonna do the other side too?" John asks when Rodney moves around him.

"I'd do your whole body if I had the time and it suited my plans." The look Rodney gives him is so direct, so intense, that John catches his breath.

"It does hurt," he says, suddenly wanting Rodney to know that.

"It's gonna hurt a lot more in a bit," Rodney says, carefully pressing a kiss to the nape of John's neck.

John's attention slowly turns inward, the passage of time marked by each new needle, by the bright pull and push of each piercing, and the feel of Rodney's gloved hands cool on his flesh. The pain is almost minimal, only it's not because it's _present_ like his breath is, like Rodney by his side.

"John?" Rodney's voice is gentle and John gives him a small smile. "Are you with me?"

"Yeah," John says after a moment. "This is...." Rodney brushes a hand across the colored ends of the needles and John shivers. "God...."

"Do you remember your safeword?"

"Yeah."

"All right, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to walk you over to that frame, tie you to it by these," his fingers brush the needles again. "And flog you."

"Oh Jesus," John mutters. "Rodney...yes. Now?"

"Now," Rodney says with a fond smile. "Can you stand up? Can you walk?"

The answer to both is yes; John's surprisingly steady on his feet for all that he feels so light and spacey. The frame Rodney guides him to is a big square of polished wood; there's a recessed spot light above it, just bright enough to give the illusion of privacy.

The string Rodney pulls out of his pocket is thin, more thread than twine. He loops it around a couple of the piercings and then passes it through a ring on the inside of the frame. It pulls a some and hurts a little, a hurt that grows with each pass of the string.

"Okay," Rodney says, coming to stand in front of John. His color is a little high and the light shines on his forehead and the white of his shirt, and John catches his breath. Something on his face must give him away because Rodney pauses and then leans in for a kiss.

"Can you hold your weight up?" he asks, hands gentle on John's shoulders above the last row of piercings.

John moves a little and nods. "I'm good."

"Yeah," Rodney says. "You're better than good."

He pulls out the flogger he's going to use--a braided cat made of thick leather--and holds it up. "I'm not going to give you a lot of warm up."

"Don't think I need it," John agrees.

"I don't even know that you're gonna feel this," Rodney says. It's so like the pessimistic grumble he uses at home that John laughs.

"Yeah go ahead, laugh it up." Rodney moves behind him and John feels the familiar brush of his hand across John's back. It confused him back in the beginning but now he knows that Rodney's mapping out the part of John's back that he can safely hit; it's a ritual thing for him, although he'd laugh if John shared that insight with him.

"You ready?"

"Yeah," John says. "Please?"

The first blow is _hard_\--Rodney wasn't kidding about no warm up. It rocks John on his feet just a little and that pulls against the piercings.

"Oh fuck," he mutters, suddenly understanding how this works.

Rodney settles into a rhythm and each time John can't help it, he moves. It hurts and pulls against all those bright points of pain on his arms and then Rodney hits him again and it happens all over. It's brilliant and so damn different and so good that before long, he's crying out, needing Rodney to know that it hurts.

More blows and now he's not yelling for Rodney, but just because he has to; it hurts--hot against his back and cold against his arms--and he never wants it to stop. It isn't like flying at all; this is free fall from 100,000 feet up with no sign of the earth below him.

It builds, blow by blow, and he gets louder. He already knows he won't cry from this; it's too good, too ecstatic for tears, but everything around him starts to go a little hazy anyway, like he's looking through gauze. Finally, he stumbles. He pulls out of it the first time, but then it happens again, and Rodney stops and steps up behind him, wrapping his arms around John's chest and holding him up.

"Rodney," John says, his voice hoarse. "I...."

"Yeah," Rodney says, "I know." He kisses the back of John's neck and John sighs happily. "All right, I need you to just stand here. Can you do that, or do you need me to hold you."

"Can do."

"Just for a minute," Rodney promises.

John's vaguely aware of Rodney pulling a pair of safety scissors out of his pocket, but he feels it when Rodney cuts him free of the frame. When it's done, Rodney's back, an arm around John's waist.

"We're gonna take a short walk," he says. "I've got a room and once we're there, we'll see about taking those needles out."

"Kay."

He vaguely notices the people standing outside the ring of light from the spot light--more of them than there were earlier--but no one says anything or tries to approach them. Rodney says something but he's not talking to John, so John doesn't pay attention.

After another moment, Rodney's settling him down on a comfortable bed. and then sitting next to him. "How are you doing?"

"Really really good," John says. "That was...wow, Rodney."

"Yeah, it was." Rodney kisses John's back, his lips almost cool on John's hot skin. "I'm gonna give you a choice, can you do that? Make a decision?"

They've been together long enough that John can guess what it is. "It better have to do with sex." He's been hard since about the fourth needle or so and that was _ages_ ago.

"Yeah." Rodney kisses him again. "Now, or after I take the needles out."

"Is that a trick question? Now. Please?"

Rodney laughs and reaches under John to undo his pants. They pull off easily and John spreads his legs.

"Jesus," Rodney mutters and John hears him frantically pulling off his jeans. A moment later, He slides a slick pair of fingers up inside John and John hums a little. "You're so fucking ready for me."

"I am, I really am...c'mon?"

Rodney pushes in hard and John just goes with it, because in this position he can't move much. But he doesn't really need to; Rodney's moving enough for both of them. And anyway, it's not like John thinks either of them will last long, as much as he'd like to go on for a long time. He's too high from the scene, too ready and when Rodney reaches up and runs a finger along one line of needles, John shouts and comes.

Rodney mutters barely heard obscenities and then John's name as he pushes in one more time before his rhythm goes frantic and John knows he's coming.

Much later, after the needles are properly disposed of and a shower's been had, Rodney carefully wipes down John's arms with anti-bacterial cream and then bundles him into an over-sized long-sleeve t-shirt. "We've got the room for the night. In fact, we can spend the rest of our vacation here. Not this room, you understand, but they have suites."

John looks up at him, finally making a connection. "This is where you learned how to do all this stuff, right?"

"Yeah." Rodney shrugs. "Well, not here exactly...they have a branch in New York. Boston too, but my advisor belonged and that would have been a little too weird. Anyway, I had some stress issues and a kind of off beat therapist and...."

John drifts off to the rumble of Rodney's voice.

_-end-_

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to [](http://wolfshark.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://wolfshark.dreamwidth.org/)**wolfshark** who asked for this kink a while back.
> 
> This is based on a scene I saw Mistress Matisse do with her boi at a leather convention in Seattle in 2000. It was pretty awesome and obviously a very intense scene for both of them. This story is for the free square on my Kink Bingo card--I'm using piercings/needle play. Thank you to [](http://darkrose.dreamwidth.org/profile)[](http://darkrose.dreamwidth.org/)**darkrose** for giving this the once over. If you want to think of the club as The Establishment, I won't stop you.
> 
> If you want to know what a play piercing looks like (or even if you do know and just want to look at some cool pictures) the bmezine blog has a whole [tag for it](http://news.bmezine.com/tag/play-piercing/). Needless to say, those are some seriously NSFW pictures.


End file.
